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Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Start of a Smaller Version

Yesterday we all had the day off, so I took the opportunity to start a sweater for Rainbow. I'd long had Little Oak in my favorites, so when I heard that the Knitmore Girls were doing a "matchy matchy" knitalong, I decided that it was the right time to knit it. I'd already made myself a Gnarled Oak Cardigan in tosh dk last year, so now Rainbow and I will have (sort of) matching sweaters.

I didn't have any appropriate yarn in my stash already, so I allowed myself to go yarn shopping for this one. My LYS has stopped carrying madelinetosh yarns (mostly because of a supply issue), but they've recently brought in a new yarn that's a really excellent substitute -- Yarn HollowTor DK. This yarn is 100% superwash merino and has the same color quality of madelinetosh. I've only knit part of a sleeve and I already love it.

I'm following the wisdom of the last sweater I knit Rainbow and starting with the sleeves, as I find it much easier to put those stitches on holders and have the body stitches on the needles when I join for the yoke than vice versa. The first sleeve should be finished tonight and the second one started. My gauge is a tad bit off (I'm getting 22 sts/4 in. with a size 4 needle, whereas the pattern calls for 24 sts/4 in. using a size 6 -- Alana Dakos must be a loose knitter!) but I'm using that to my advantage. I'm knitting the size 4, but I really wanted to make something a little larger than that because Rainbow's already comfortably in size 5 clothes. The size 6 seemed a bit too large, but this should allow her to have a little room to grow.

1 comment:

I really LOVE the idea of knitting the sleeves first in a bottom-up sweater! Much better to do the annoying part at the start of a project, when you're still excited and ready to do anything. Thanks for the tip!